When the sun is out, which is a good part of our day, it is very warm, in the high 80s, but we are in the monsoon season right now, so lately the heat of the day has given way to thunder storms. Today's was especially heavy and it washed ruts into our gravel drive that we will need to smooth out.

Over at our smaller cabin there is a hummingbird that doesn't have any tail feathers. She seems to get around okay with just her wings, but I'm sure there are limitations. We have been spending time over there watching the feeder for her, because without that elongation of the tail, she looks like a flying peanut in the shell.

The other day I was standing on the bridge holding a hummingbird feeder, on my way to the one of the cabins, and some of the birds came up and started feeding from it. They acted like they appreciated the service. Between the three houses we have at least 70 birds using the feeders. We go through about a pound of sugar a day.



We have power lines crossing over the river, and fishing lines have gotten tangled in them. A bat was trying to eat one of the flies on a tangled line and ended up snagged by the hook. Poor bat, it died there, upside down over the river. We could reach it to cut it down. Eventually the ravens came and took the carcass away. The circle of life.

Our fox comes around every few days. The neighbors saw it catch and eat a ground squirrel next to the wood pile, so it is earning its keep.

The beavers are here in force: there are now three of them that we have seen all at the same time. Every couple of days we try to disrupt the dams they built up our side stream, and they come during the night to repair them. We figure this will stop when that stream dries up, but just when it starts dwindling to nothing we get a rain storm that restores it. They are trimming our trees along the main river, and we are wrapping the ones we want to keep with chicken wire to save them.

I found out from Mr. Troutbend that he uses math to figure out how big to cut the chicken wire to encircle a tree; I was eye-balling it. That shows the difference between us. You should have heard the discussion we had of how to measure distance by how many paces versus how many steps. I am always learning something new about him even after all these years.

We have put mosquito dunks in the beaver ponds to kill off mosquito larvae. They (the dunks) are donut shaped and deliver a bacterium that is specific to mosquitoes and black flies, not harmful to plants or fish.

The other day the largest beaver was slapping its tail to warn the others that I was in the area. It sounded like someone was dropping 20 pound rocks off the cliff above my head: big splash sounds as the tail hit the water. I had expected it to sound more like a slap like when someone does a belly flop from a height.

The deer are around, but we don't see much of them. Mr. Troutbend saw a dead elk on his recent hike. There was a good-sized rack, and the bones were scattered the way mountain lions do when they kill and eat a large animal like that.



Our fish in the river seem to be fine. There is a 15 inch brown trout that stays around the bridge and we see it several times a day. I think the fishermen who've been here lately have been having a good time.

The cabins are renting out pretty well. We didn't have any reservations for August, but are getting some now, so it might be a busy month. I try to save a day between guests for cleaning so we aren't rushed. Mr. Troutbend has been helping by cleaning the charcoal grill for me.

It has been a good year for wild flowers and my columbines, which are basically wild, have done really well. There are various color combinations like purple/yellow and red/yellow in addition to the expected blue/white.